Men's Basketball Championship -- First-Round Summary

Feb. 27, 2007

(#4 seed) UW-Green Bay 78, (#9 seed) Cleveland State 59 Box Score
Green Bay, Wis. (AP) - Troy Cotton scored 19 points and Ryan Evanochko had 16 as host UW-Green Bay beat Cleveland State for the third time this season, 78-59, in the first round of the Horizon League Championship.

Fourth-seeded Green Bay (17-14) advances to the quarterfinals on Friday night against fifth-seeded Youngstown State (14-16) in Dayton, Ohio.

Cleveland State (10-21) was led by Bahaadar Russell with 14 points.

The combined 35 points by guards Cotton and Evanochko helped the Phoenix end a two-game losing streak.

Mike Schachtner added 12 points and seven rebounds and Terry Evans had 12 points, eight rebounds and six blocks for the Phoenix.

Green Bay led 38-34 and went on a 16-6 run to open the second half. Cotton hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game to put the Phoenix ahead 52-40, and Evanochko stole the next Cleveland State possession and went the length of the court for a layup.

Cleveland State hit just two of its first 11 shots of the second half.

The Phoenix led 60-45 after Evans slammed home a Ryan Tillema miss with 7:53 left.

(#5 seed) Youngstown State 82, (#8 seed) Detroit 80 Box Score
Youngstown, Ohio (AP) - Keston Roberts scored 31 points, 20 of them in the first half, and Youngstown State hung on after blowing a 17-point second-half lead to defeat Detroit 82-80 on Tuesday in the first round of the Horizon League Championship.

A three-pointer by Detroit's Brandon Bell tied it for the fourth time at 77-77 with 1:07 left in the game, but Roberts hit a jumper and John Barber made his only two free throw attempts for the Penguins (14-16).

Jon Goode hit another 3 to pull the Titans within 1 with two seconds left, and Detroit (11-19) fouled after a timeout with 1 second left. Quin Humphrey sunk one of two free throws, and Bell missed a three-point attempt at the buzzer.

Humphrey finished with 19 points and five assists, and Jack Liles added 13 for the Penguins.

Detroit's Brandon Cotton scored 33 points, including 6-for-9 shooting on threes. Goode finished with 11 points and Chris Hayes had 10.

Roberts scored the first 10 points of the game and hit another jumper to put the Penguins up 14-2 early. Youngstown State led by as many as 19 points late in the first half and was still up 52-35 two minutes into the second. But the Titans chipped away, tying it at 62-62 with 8:03 to go, and the game stayed tight after that.

Youngstown State plays UW-Green Bay on Friday in the quarterfinals.

(#6 seed) UIC 83, (#7 seed) UW-Milwaukee 77 Box Score
Chicago, Ill.- Josh Mayo scored 22 points and Robert Bush added a career-high 21 points as host UIC advanced to the second round of the Horizon League Championship with an 83-77 win over UW-Milwaukee.

Leading 68-66 with 1:54 left in the game, Scott VanderMeer finished a break with a dunk for Illinois-Chicago (14-17) and Mayo hit four consecutive free throws, giving the Flames a 74-66 lead with 47.7 seconds remaining.

Paige Paulsen hit a 3-pointer with 24.1 seconds left to cut the Flames lead to 77-74, but Mayo answered with a pair of free throws. He was 8-of-8 from the charity stripe in the final 1:20 and made all 14 of his free throw attempts in the game.

Paulsen led the Panthers with 17 points and Ricky Franklin added 16.

Trailing 67-58 with 5:04 left, Avery Smith made a game out of it by scoring seven consecutive points for the Panthers. He converted a three-point play that cut the Flames' lead to 68-66. Smith finished with 16 points.

Bush's three-pointer gave the Flames a 41-40 advantage early in the second half, their first lead since the opening minutes of the game. Mayo added to it with a pair of free throws and 3-pointer, putting UIC up 53-43 with 10:43 to go in the game.

Jovan Stefanov and VanderMeer both scored 10 points for the Flames, who were 29-of-33 from the line as a team. Vandermeer also had eight rebounds and blocked five shots.

The Flames closed out the first half by outscoring the Panthers 10-3. Stefanov, who made all 10 of his points in the half, made a three-pointer to cut the UW-Milwaukee lead to 36-34 at the break. Paulsen scored 10 points in the first half to lead the Panthers, who had a 10-point lead midway through the period. Franklin added eight points for the Panthers in the half.

UW-Milwaukee ended its season at 9-22 and UIC will face Loyola in Dayton in Friday's second round.